Tag Archives: Aging

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Facial Aging, When , Why and How

Facial Aging: Our face ages more rapidly than the rest of our body.  This is because our face is totally exposed to our environment.  Unfortunately,  any changes or alterations on the face are more noticeable, because as a general rule we do not cover up our face with clothing like the rest of our body,

How The Face And It’s Skin Ages

As we transition from infancy to old age a lot of facial aging  changes take place.  One of the most dramatic changes is the shape of the cranium.  The greatest changes occur from infancy to puberty as the face and head mature into an adult form.

The eyes, nose, and mouth expand to fill a relatively greater area of the surface of the cranium; the relative area occupied by the forehead shrinks as the eyes move up into this area; the eyes become proportionately smaller and the forehead slopes back more;  with facial aging the face becomes smaller in respect to the rest of the body; and the chin tends to become larger and more protrusive.

Some of these changes may continue, but less dramatically into adulthood, but other changes begin to occur to mark facial aging and correspond to the decline of the face past the generative years into old age.

Skin and Facial Aging

The majority of visible skin aging occurs in the face, because it is regularly exposed to the sun.  If a person were able to avoid sun exposure their whole life, their face would have few wrinkles and discolorations, even in old age.

Facial aging  in old age – the skin becomes darker, less flexible, rougher, and even more leathery: lines, wrinkles, folds, pouches, and blemishes or discolorations gradually appear and/or becomes more pronounced; muscles and connective tissues change their elasticity; lips lose muscle tone and become thinner and narrower; fatty deposits and bone may be lost produce pouches in the cheeks, bags under the eyes, sagging under the chin or a double chin, opening pores, and other changes in the way of soft tissues conform to the underlying bony structure.

Aging And The Environment

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Aging And The Environment

How The Environment Effects Our Aging

Environment-Aging: External environmental factors such as the sun, pollution, water, smoking, air conditioning, and central heating all play a major role in our over-all aging and well-being.

Research has shown that here are linkages between what goes on in the environment and its effect on the senior population. The United States is rapidly becoming a country of the aged. In 2006, the first of the nation’s baby boomers turned 60, and by 2030, the aging population will double to more than 70 million.

As our country ages, it is imperative that we examine the impact pollution is having on the world. Environmental protection, which focuses on the health of the ecosystem and the people within it, is necessary.

Environment-Aging: Pollution

Pollutants such as pesticides, and acid rain, have made their way into our food supply. Acid rain can be absorbed by both plants and animals. When we eat these plants and or animals, the toxins inside our foods can affect us. Brain damage, kidney problems, and Alzheimer’s diseases has been linked to eating toxic animals and plants.

  • Pesticides may also produce a rise in blood cholesterol, an increase in the metabolic rate, and interference with the lymphatic system.
  •  Every system in our body can be affected by pesticides.
  • Pesticides are also vitamin antagonists, and are cancer inciting.

Environment-Aging: Sun

The principal environmental factor is the level of exposure to the sun’s rays that we experience throughout our lives. Unprotected exposure to the sun can lead to the skin becoming dehydrated, the collagen within the connective tissues breaking down rapidly, and the appearance of wrinkles.

Environment-Aging: Polluted Water

Acid rain, pollution, and oil spills does not help our water supply.

Given that we are made up of 70 percent water, what we drink has a significant effect on how well our body’s age.  For our bodies to function at their optimum, we require six to eight glasses of clean water daily. Water is suppose to helps flush toxins from the body, not put toxins in.

When there is a build up on toxins in the body, dark circles under the eyes may appear, this is an indication that the kidneys are having a hard time eliminating the toxins from the body.

Smoking

Scientific findings show that smoking, whether active or passive, can age you just as rapidly as exposure to the sun. Smoking depletes the body of vitamin C a much-needed nutrient for anti-aging.

Air Conditioning And Central Heating

The air conditioning and central heating found in most offices and homes tend to dry our skin out. If you spend a lot of time in an air conditioned or central heating environment, make sure your regularly moisturize your skin and get plenty of fresh air, to counter balance the effect of an indoor climate.

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Life Style And Aging

Life Style And Longevity

Life style is one of the  many factors affecting our longevity, and it may not be possible for us to implement them all. However, this may not be necessary because we are all unique with very different chemical, physiological, social, etc. Elements that make each one of us unique. What works for one person may not work for another, and vice versa. However, there are three basic principles that apply to us all; balanced nutrition, exercise, and sleep.

Healthy Life

According to a 2005 study, published in the April 25th edition of the Archives of Internal Medicine, led by Matthew J. Reeves who is the lead researcher and epidemiologist at the Michigan State University, only 3 percent of Americans lead a healthy lifestyle.

Over 150,000 Americans participated in the study. The study revealed that only 23.3% of Americans eat the minimum recommended amount of five daily servings of fruit and vegetables, 76% do not smoke, 40.1% maintain a healthy weight, and 22.2% exercise for at least 30 minutes, five times a week. Healthy Life Styles Studies

A new study published January 5, 2016, reveals that very little has changed in the last 11 years: 

In theory, we know that lifestyle choices have an impact on our health, in practice; we find it difficult to change unhealthy habits.

Unhealthy Life Style

An unhealthy lifestyle means more illness and more expense to treat illnesses. This means a bigger burden on an already challenged healthcare system. Poor health also means more time lost at work, less quality recreational time, and even a shorter lifespan.

One Way to begin a healthier lifestyle is to start with the following simple behavior changes:

  1. Do not smoke.
  2. Exercise thirty minutes or more five days per week.
  3. Eat five or more servings of fruits and vegetables everyday.
  4. Drink eight cups of water daily.
  5. Maintain a healthy weight.
  6. Take a multivitamin daily.
  7. Get six to eight hours of sleep.

Summary

Knowing the basic principles that are mandatory for well being and longevity is half the battle. Now, we have to internalize these basic principles into our daily lives.

Basically we have to start a behavior modification process. The results will speak for themselves, just as they will if we neglect the basic principles presented in this article.

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Managing Your Lifestyle Choices

Lifestyle Choices

Your lifestyle choices should include good nutrition and exercise.  These two choices can slow, stop, and even reverse the changes in the body once blamed on aging.

Did You Know?

  • Researchers estimate that if people born today practiced good habits, the average life span could soar from the current 76 years to 100 years.
  • The older brain, when challenged with new activities, can continue to develop and learn until very late in life.
  • Lifestyle choices have a greater effect on aging than our genes.  Studies reveal that diet, exercise, social support, spiritual support, mental stimulation and a sense of self-efficacy are the key factors that determine how well you age.
  • People thinking positively about getting older live seven and a half years longer than those who think negatively.
  • Anticipating a happy, funny event can raise levels of endorphins, and other pleasure relaxation inducing hormones.
  • Laughter lowers the production of stress hormones.
  • At least fifty percent of age related change in muscles, bones, and joints are caused disuse.

Healthy-lifestyle-longevity-elderly-longer-life.

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Anti Aging Fact Or Fiction

Anti Aging: Planning For the Retirement Years

I am writing this anti aging article because I want to raise awareness to the need to plan and manage our extended longevity just as we do with our financial planning.

Anti aging, are there any benefits to plan for it? Yes, but you cannot be measured by the benefits of planning for your retirement years in monetary terms but rather in the “Quality of Your Life”

Life Expectancy

It is a fact that our life expectancy continues to increase. Each generation gradually outlives the previous generation. Living longer or well past the 65-year-old milestone is a relatively new phenomenon for us here in the US.

Numerous social, physical, emotional, and economical changes take place as we age. The majority of us are not aware, or prepared for these changes. However, prepared or not, we are, or soon will be, in the final stage of our lives. How we respond to this extended segment of our life, and how we realistically prepare for it, will determine if these will be the golden years or difficult times ahead.

Negatives Of Aging

We hear a great deal about the negatives of aging, sometimes referred to as the “downhill slide”. We are told that we may experience:

  • slower reflexes,
  • gray hair, or balding,
  • wrinkling of the skin,
  • decreasing vision and hearing,
  • high blood pressure,
  • arthritis, osteoporosis, and all the other degenerative diseases.

So the question arises – what do we have to look forward to in retirement? How enjoyable can life in older age be? Actually, the quality of our life in older age can be as rewarding as we plan it to be.

Components Of Anti Aging

Once you see how the various components of aging affect us all, you can make informed decisions regarding your aging process.

  • Minimize your stress
  • Try to get close to eight hours of sleep.
  • Eat moderate amounts of nutritious foods
  • Get  lots of exercise.
  • Do not  smokes.

It is not any one component that affects aging, rather it is the cumulative factors, most of which we can influence, that ultimately determines how we can slow down the rapidity of our aging.

By utilizing anti aging principles and practices, we can prepare ourselves physical, emotionally, physiologically, and spiritually to be in the best possible condition to enjoy life especially in the later years.

Most Americans, unfortunately, do not follow healthy habits. The greatest irony would be to discover that a pill is not, in the end, any more effective than the healthy habits we already ignore.

Anti-aging-therapies

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